


Between The Walls

by queenofroses12



Series: Star Trek TOS, Season Four [2]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Action/Adventure, Ambushes and Sneak Attacks, Biological Weapons, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Human Experimentation, Mind Manipulation, Mind Rape, Monster of the Week, Romulans, Screenplay/Script Format, Unethical Experimentation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:06:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27940490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenofroses12/pseuds/queenofroses12
Summary: "Captain’s Log.We are in orbit around Outpost Zero, long considered to be part history, part space legend. The most mysterious of the Romulan outposts during the war, presumed destroyed…But  apparently intact."Investigating a long abandoned Romulan Outpost is bound to be interesting, but soon it turns out that the outpost is not as abandoned as it seems... Another of the TOS Season Four imaginary scripts.
Relationships: James T. Kirk & Leonard "Bones" McCoy & Spock, James T. Kirk & Spock
Series: Star Trek TOS, Season Four [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2022361
Comments: 23
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

Star date 1643.6

 **Kirk** (trying for a professional, objective tone, but some of the excitement showing through): Captain’s Log. We are in orbit around Outpost Zero, long considered to be part history, part space legend. The most mysterious of the Romulan outposts during the war, presumed destroyed…But apparently intact.

(Exterior view. The Enterprise is in orbit around a barren planetoid. The surface of the planetoid is reddish, rocky, bare – except for a structure of monochrome steel, now covered with the dust of decades, which the sensors of the ship are focused on.)

 **McCoy** (standing beside the Captain’s chair, eyes fixed on the glass and steel monstrosity down on the planet): I thought Romulans blasted all their outposts to atoms when they had to retreat?

 **Kirk** : Exceptions to every rule, Bones.

 **Spock** (not looking up from the Science Console viewer): No life signs. Life support systems still online, but minimal. Interior atmosphere at standard humanoid tolerance level. No harmful radiation. Weapon systems online, but lack of power has rendered them harmless. The energy reserves of the outpost are almost completely depleted. Signs of normal wear and tear due to exposure and negligence.

 **Kirk:** No sign of their having come under fire?

 **Spock** : Not on the exterior at least, Captain.

 **Kirk** : So we’ve got ourselves a ghost outpost.

 **McCoy** : As if Romulans weren’t creepy enough already. If you’re planning to go pocking and prying down there, you can count me out.

…………………………………………

(Transporter room. The landing party – Kirk, Spock, McCoy, a science department lieutenant, security officers Garrovick and Durga – taking their positions on the transporter pad. McCoy looks grumpier than ever, the other humans excited – nothing like a historical mystery to liven up a quiet stretch of surveys.)

 **Kirk** : Life Support belts on.

(The landing party activates the belts and the golden halo of the life support force field flickers into existence. Yeah, the outpost has life support online, but it apparently also has every single one of its inhabitants dead. No one’s going to take unnecessary chances here.)

 **Kirk** : Put us down at the central circle, Kyle. Energize.

(Kyle activates the transporter.)

………………………………….

(Interior Outpost Zero. The interior of the outpost is circular in design, with vast rooms arranged in a circle around the central core. The landing party materializes in this central circle, with half a dozen hallways leading away from it. The interior had once been pristine marble and steel, from what they can make out through the layers.)

 **McCoy** : Uh, how long has this thing been abandoned, by the way?

 **Spock:** Since early 2160s, I presume. This region of space was conceded to the Federation – then the Coalition of Planets – after the Battle of Cheron.

(In sharp contrast to the pristine exterior, the interior of the outpost is practically falling…melting…apart. There are what looks like rust stains on the walls, cracks running up to the ceiling, oozy splashes of some viscous black liquid pooled around at random intervals.)

 **Kirk** (taking a long, puzzled glance around, taking in the corroded, decaying appearance of the legendary outpost): A century couldn’t have done this much damage. Not even with the building materials they were using at the time. Outposts like this are built to last.

 **Spock** (kneeling next to one of the pools of liquid, running the tricorder over it): Fascinating.

 **Kirk:** What?

 **Spock** (still intent on the scan): This substance does not conform to any of the known chemical configurations.

 **McCoy:** They were using this place for weapons research, weren’t they?

 **Kirk** (joining Spock): That’s one of the ideas. No one was really sure – weapons research, prison, VIP vacation spot… Almost everything we know about Romulans from that time is plain speculation.

 **Science lieutenant** (alarmed): Sir! Life signs!

(Everyone turns towards him. Kirk, Durga and Garrovick draw their phasers instinctively.)

 **Kirk:** Report, lieutenant!

 **Lieutenant** : Romulan life signs, sir. It came out of nowhere! That direction.. (points to indicate)

 **Spock (** now checking his own tricorder, swiftly readjusted to scan for lifesigns): A single Romulan, captain. Feeble, fading. As Lieutenant Summers said, it seems to have…just appeared. Certainly, it was not present during the orbital scans or our more detailed scans on initial landing.

 **McCoy:** Whoever it’s is dying, Jim. We’ve to hurry. (Moves in the direction indicated.)

 **Kirk:** It could be a trap, Bones. Where one hid, there could be more.

(Communicator beeps)

 **Kirk:** The captain here.

 **Uhura** (Offscreen): Enterprise to Landing Party. Captain, the scans picked up a life sign – one that, according to ensign Chekov, appeared from thin air.

 **Kirk:** We spotted it. Only single? Is that certain?

(Some indistinct sounds from the communicator as Uhura asks Chekov something.)

 **Uhura:** Yes, Captain. Very close to you – it looks like he’s in the next room. No sign of force fields or shielded areas he could’ve come from.

(The landing parties tricorders have shown the same result. Durga and Garrovick have their phasers aimed at the door separating them from the Romulan. Kirk steps to the door.)

 **Spock** (raises an eyebrow, looks puzzled): Captain, whoever it is..They’re sobbing. I can hear them.

(Every one stares. A Romulan, sobbing?)

 **McCoy** (takes another look at the medical tricorder): Jim, let me go in.

(Kirk motions to Durga and Garrovick. They fire phasers at the door, keeping the power at low level, carefully so that the beams won’t go through the door to hit the already wounded Romulan. The door melts open to reveal a hallway. A figure is huddled against a wall, curled into fetal shape, and yes, shaking with choked sobs.)

 **Garrovick** (shaken): What the hell?

(McCoy goes to the Romulan without a moment’s hesitation. He’s in full-on doctor mode. The hallway is in much the same shape as the room they have left. Corroding, falling apart. It looks downright eerie.)

 **Kirk:** Bones?

(The Romulan looks up, seeming to become aware of them for the first time. Kirk winces at the glimpse he got of the man’s face – what remains of it. It’s mostly a green bruised mess, the only living part of it being one dark eye that looked up at him, wide and terrified.)

 **Romulan :** (something in his own language. Talking very quickly, gabbling.)

(Kirk activates the Universal Translator)

 **Romulan:** I surrender! I surrender! Take me away, please, please, I beg of you! Away, just away, kill me, just, just away, please, please, no more, no, no..

(Shocked looks all around. There’s something almost obscene in seeing one of the proud Romulans so completely broken, reduced to begging for mercy from mortal enemies.)

 **Kirk (** gentle, soothing tone): No one’s going to kill you, and no one’s going to hurt you either. Not any more.

 **Romulan** (eyes wild, near insane, with fear): Take me away, away, away, please…(Sees Spock) Brother! Save me, please, it hunts. It waits and hunts. In the dark, in the shadows. It creeps up on you, dark, pulsing dark, mazes, I ran, I ran, we all did, but…gone, gone away, all of them, please, don’t let it get me, please, please, brother or foe, I yield, I..

(McCoy injects the Romulan with a sedative.)

 **McCoy:** Jim, I’ve got to get him to the sickbay. Right now. (looks back down at his patient, shocked by what he has just seen) He’s been savaged, mauled, tortured within an inch of his life.

 **Kirk** (speaking into the communicator): Medic team to the transporter room. Kyle, Dr McCoy plus one wounded Romulan to beam up.

 **Kyle** (somewhat startled): Aye, sir!

(Transporter beam. McCoy and the Romulan vanish. The landing party members look at each other, baffled by what they have seen.)

 **Kirk** : Keep an eye on your tricorder, lieutenant . We don’t need any more surprises.

 **Durga:** Captain, that Romulan…He was wearing their Bird-of-Prey insignia. A commander’s insignia.

 **Kirk:** Are you sure?

 **Durga:** Yes sir. If he was wearing a uniform it was too tattered to be sure, but the insignia was there.

(Kirk exchanges a grim glance with Spock. It would have been bad enough if the hysterical Romulan was just a freaked out civilian scientist, but for a Romulan warrior – a commander - to be reduced to the quivering mess they saw… Kirk really doesn’t want to imagine what it would take to do that.)

 **Kirk:** Alert, everyone.

(As if they need to be told.)

 **Spock** (pausing at one of the pools of black liquid, intent on the tricorder): This is most unusual, Captain.

 **Kirk:** Poisonous?

 **Spock** : Lethal. But more importantly, it seems to be extremely corrosive, more so than its other chemical properties would indicate. It is organic in nature.

 **Kirk** : Organic-

 **Lt Summers** : Life signs!

(Every one on ready mode, weapons drawn – the security officers hadn’t holstered theirs after the last alarm. Eyes darting in every direction, taking in any path of approach.)

 **Kirk:** Romulan?

 **Summers** (puzzled and not a little alarmed): No sir. I can’t make out what this is, I’ve never seen anything like this before.

 **Spock** (moving to take a look at the lieutenant’s tricorder readings): Nor have I. A most unusual pattern, but it seems to have a basic humanoid structure. Moving in random patterns- (Slight frown) It has vanished.

 **Kirk:** Vanished? (Pauses. Gets one idea that he really doesn’t like) What’re the odds that the Romulans haven’t left the place completely alone, after all? A cloaked ship observing the outpost in orbit…

 **Spock :** Extremely improbable, Captain. Our sensors, even if they were unable to detect the presence of the cloaked vessel, would have detected unusual patterns in the vacuum. Besides, had the entity been beamed off planet, the Enterprise would have noticed the transporter activity and alerted us.

 **Kirk:** Just thinking aloud, Spock. The location of the entity when it vanished?

 **Spock:** Approximately five hundred sixty seven meters from us, bearing one eight. (Adjusts his tricorder) The entity’s disappearance coincides with certain curious subspace vibrations. (Shows the readings to Kirk .)

 **Kirk** (frowning): Seems somehow familiar.

 **Spock:** These are similar to the patterns recorded when a ship engages warp drive. Of course, these are on a considerably smaller scale, but the pattern remains the same with lower intensity.

 **Kirk:** Something that can travel through subspace?

(Now he does look rather alarmed, past the unflappable Captain persona. Summers looks like he’s on the verge of freaking out. Durga and Garrovick doesn’t know exactly what that implies, but both have enough common sense to know that anything that makes the experts look like this is bad news.)

 **Spock:** Possibly, Captain. However, I do not have sufficient data to form a reliable conjecture yet.

……………………………….

(Aboard Enterprise, Sickbay. Operating room. McCoy and M’Benga are trying every trick in the book and quite a few out of it. going by the plunging biobed monitors, it really isn’t working.)

 **McCoy** (looking somewhat horrified despite his aiming for the professional coolness): How in the name of all that is holy did this man survive so long? He’s rotting from inside out!

 **M’Benga:** Something extremely corrosive… There’s no microbial action. Even where there should be.

(The life sign monitors beep – trouble)

 **McCoy:** Cordrazine, 3 ccs!

………………………….

(Outpost. The landing party is in what seems to be the central computer mainframe for the complex. Spock and Summers are tackling the computer’s security systems. Kirk looking over Spock’s shoulder, adding a comment or a suggestion now and then. Durga and Garrovick stand alert, phasers in hand. Durga also has Summers’ tricorder, keeping an eye out for any life signs. Or unusual subspace patterns, though she’s not sure she’ll recognize those.)

 **Spock** (slight frown. Data and commands flash by on the screen, too quick for Kirk’s human eyes.): Interesting.

 **Kirk** : Are you getting through?

 **Spock:** Yes. The encryption techniques utilized here are nearly a century out of date.

(The data on the screen slows enough for Kirk. From his expression, it doesn’t make much more sense now, either.)

 **Kirk:** These are-

 **Spock:** Experiment logs and the recorded findings. They were attempting to independently develop warp drive technology. (Frowns) But these equations do not make sense unless… (trails off, thinking.) Organic components? Wetware? (He’s talking more to himself than to Kirk – just as well, as the latter is sort of out of his depth)

 **Durga:** Life signs. (pauses for a second look) Close by, sir!

………………………………………

(Point of View shifts. Some one…some thing…is watching the landing party. The lighting changes to reflect the entity’s manner of sight. The eyes wander over each of the group, lingering on Spock. Whatever it is, it manages to communicate an aura of anger, hunger. It is hunting, indeed. )


	2. Chapter 2

**Garrovick** : Aah!

(Everyone whirls to face him. The security ensign is staring at his phaser – what is left of it. The viscous liquid is dripping from a crack in the ceiling. The Life Support belt’s force field has kept it from reaching Garrovick’s skin, but the phaser is not shielded. It has practically melted in his hands, now an unrecognizable shape of corroded metal. Garrovick darts away from under the crack, Durga and Kirk aim their weapons at it.)

 **Spock** (checking his tricorder): The entity is no longer there, Captain. It has vanished again.

 **Durga** : It was watching us ?

 **Spock (** unflappable as ever): Obviously.

 **Kirk** : Spock, Summers. Download what data you can from the Mainframe to your tricorders. We are beaming back up.

(He evidently has no intention of exposing his team more than absolutely necessary to whatever is going on down here – not without more data. Summers looks relieved, Spock clearly reluctant.)

 **Spock:** Captain, I request permission to remain-

 **Kirk** : Permission denied. We’ll come back after we get a clearer idea of what they were doing here.

(Spock doesn’t like the idea, but knows better than to protest again. He sets the tricorder to recording, connecting it to the computer, then moves over to the liquid)

 **Spock** : I should take a sample .

 **Kirk:** If it can melt a phaser, it can melt whatever sample containers we brought down.

 **Spock** : Yes.

(Scoops up some of the liquid- the forcefield of the belt keeps it from reaching his skin. The others stare)

 **Spock:** I can transfer it to a Thanatos Class Hazard container once aboard. It cannot eat through forcefields.

……………………………………………………

(Bridge. The ship is in Yellow Alert mode. Sulu in the Command Chair, Chekov at the science station. The junior officers are evidently busy speculating about whatever has been found down there)

 **Chekov** : Nothing else. The weird life signs vanished. Again.

 **Sulu** : Keep a sharp lookout. Any subspace distortions?

 **Chekov:** No. Not after the Landing Party beamed back.

(Behind him, a few centimeters from his feet, a drop of some black liquid can be seen – the same one they found planetside.)

………………………………………………..

(Sickbay. Kirk and McCoy in the doctor’s office. Outside, in the critical care ward, M’Benga and Christine Chapel are tending to the Romulan.)

 **McCoy** : I don’t think I can pull him through, Jim. There’s chronic damage…He has been tortured for years. I’d say decades. Far beyond any body –even a Romulan body – can endure. The last time I saw something like this…When Yorktown liberated that Klingon prison planet. Even that wasn’t quite as rough as this. And that’s not the worst.

(Moves over to his desk, activates a screen there. A speeded up montage of what looks like blood cells – only, of course, green instead of red. The healthy green cells are being engulfed by some kind of black fluid. The cells jitter, shrink and go still. Kirk looks a bit creeped out by the montage.)

 **McCoy** : A bit of a creative representation, but mostly, yes, this is what is happening to him. Eaten from inside out.

 **Kirk:** Disease?

 **McCoy** (shrugs): We haven’t been able to isolate a pathogen yet. You went through decon, didn’t you?

 **Kirk:** Of course.

**McCoy:** It wouldn’t get through our belt fields- the Landing Party is in the clear. What about that sample Spock brought along?

 **Kirk** : Secured. He’s analyzing it.

 **McCoy** : Well, tell him to be damn careful. I don’t know if that thing is responsible for this, but it is definitely connected.

 **Kirk** (glancing towards the Romulan): Is he in any shape to be questioned?

 **McCoy** (he looks rather uneasy at the idea of interrogating a patient, but knows that under the circumstances, he can’t argue.): Certainly not at the moment. He’s just come out of surgery. Not that much surgery was done – once we opened him up, it was clear there wasn’t much that could be done. Give him an hour or two. Of course, if he’s still hysterical…

 **Kirk:** We’ll see.

…………………………………………………

(Botany lab. The chief scientist, Andre Decarte, looks like he’s on the verge of apoplexy)

 **Decarte** (in an icy cold voice that promises someone will soon be taking a spacewalk straight out of the nearest airlock): Who exactly was on duty last night?

(One of the ensigns, paper pale, steps forward)

 **Ensign** : Me, sir. Ensign Carter. I swear it was alright throughout my watch!

(Decarte glares at him, then waves a hand to indicate the state of the lab- the usual array of carefully tended specimens which give the appearance of a genuine planetside park are now wilting, dying. Some have already begun to rot. It looks like a horticulturist’s nightmare.)

 **Decarte** : Then your explanation for this, Ensign Carter? Every single system malfunctioning! A fourth of the collection lost! Do you have the least idea how valuable even a single one of these specimens are?

 **Carter** (terrified): Sir, I don’t know! I checked every gauges, the nutrient supply and irrigation systems are in perfect order, the greenhouse conditions uninterrupted-

 **Decarte** (too furious to listen, striding to the nearest row of dead plants): What exactly do you call this?

( there are patches of the viscous black liquid on the floor – but it doesn’t attract immediate attention.)

 **Decarte:** Does this look normal to you?

………………………………………………………

(One of the Science labs. From the look of it, the one that’s assigned for Hazardous material analysis. Spock and a couple of other science department people at work. Lot of weird futuristic equipment, mixed in with more traditional lab materials. Spock is looking into a viewer of some sort.)

 **Spock** (speaking to the computer, probably): Quantum particulate analysis AR-VIII, scan for ELO-IID elemental traces. Factor in the data on File-Outpost Omega.

(Summers approaches, a PADD in hand. Spock must have heard him. Looks up from the viewer.)

 **Spock** : Have you completed the analysis?

 **Summers** (looking very disturbed by what he has found): Yes sir, but… But it doesn’t... (bursts out) How could they have done that?There’s nothing in here about proper shielding, only class nine settings, that wouldn’t hold against simple impulse motion, forget warp!

**Spock** (checking whatever is onscreen on the PADD): I suggest you keep up to date in your reading, lieutenant.

(Intent on the PADD, he nods as if it confirms some assumption he formed. Goes back to checking the viewer. Summers leaves.)

 **Computer** : Analysis complete

(POV shifts. The entity’s POV, watching Spock. The Vulcan abruptly looks up, his telepathic senses warning of unfriendly eyes fixed upon him. Spock glances around the lab, catching the eyes of one of the other scientists, looking uncharacteristically uneasy. The entity, sensing that its prey has become suspicious, retreats. Perhaps seeking a more vulnerable target.)

……………………………………………………………

(Some time later. Sickbay. The Romulan is no longer in an isolation room, Kirk and McCoy aren’t using life support belts or other protective clothing, so whatever is eating him – literally – must have been concluded to be non contagious. The Romulan is awake, but not quite coherent. He’s still terrified, eyes darting from side to side, pale and sweating. He looks like a hunted animal – an animal that has been hunted so long that it has forgotten what it felt like to be safe. Kirk has the Universal Translator activated.)

 **Romulan:** I must hide! He..It..It won’t rest, it seeks, hunts..

 **Kirk** : You’re not at the outpost, commander. You are safe here.

**Romulan** : You..You are..real? Not..not..

 **Kirk** : We are real. Whatever happened to you down there, its over.

 **Romulan (** some trace of sanity seems to return to his eyes.): You..I am..your prisoner..

 **McCoy** : Right now you are my patient. We’ll work out the other details later.

(The Romulan stares at him)

 **Kirk:** Commander, what happened to you?

(The Romulan shudders, closing his eyes tight. He’s on the verge of going into another panic attack.)

 **Romulan** : Take me away. Please, please, I beg of you. take me away, imprison me, kill me, just…just take me out of its reach. No hope, no hope there, circles, circles upon circles..

(The Romulan begins to sob. Kirk and McCoy exchange glances. Spock enters the sickbay, PADD in hand, hesitates at the door when he sees what is going on. Kirk gestures him to come in. Maybe the Romulan would feel easier in the presence of someone who looks like one of his people. Spock obeys, somewhat reluctantly.)

 **Spock** (to the Romulan): Commander?

(Romulan opens his eyes, focusing on Spock. His face floods with relief)

 **Romulan** : Not…Not captured, after all… 

(Reaches out frantically to clutch Spock’s hand, holding on like a drowning man. Spock is naturally disturbed by the contact, but makes no attempt to pull away.)

 **Spock** : Commander, we will do everything in our power to keep you safe from the Hunter, but we need to know more about it.

(Kirk and McCoy stare at him. Spock does not look away from the Romulan, but hands the PADD in his free hand to Kirk.)

 **Spock:** You need not fear us.

 **Romulan:** They.. They are..of the Coalition..foe..Terrans..

(McCoy starts. Coalition? Can the Romulan mean the Coalition of Planets, the centuries-ago predecessor to the Federation? Kirk is too engrossed in – and perhaps alarmed by – whatever he is reading on the PADD screen to react. He may not even have heard it.)

 **Spock:** Terrans, yes. But for now we are united against a common foe…Or should I say, a common predator?

(The Romulan shudders.)

 **Romulan** : No, no, that’s where we went wrong…They..All convinced it had regressed, that it was just a predator, an animal…No. No matter what they say, it can think, it is, it is, they never…We should have (lets out a hysterical laugh) Should, should, always should. Thinking trap, should. 

**Spock:** Where is it? Test subject T-467C? The Hunter?

 **Romulan:** Between the walls. In the shadows. It can make the shadows if there aren’t enough, rotting, changing.. (moans in pain. Despite the painkillers he’s hooked up to, the agony of his decaying body is getting through.)

 **Kirk** (now his voice holds no soothing tone, only clear disgust as he looks down at the Romulan – whatever the report was, it must have been pretty damning.): What happened down there?

 **Romulan** (looking at Spock – seemingly oblivious of the humans, holding onto the one person who seems familiar here.): We..We were losing..Cheron..Last chance…If it worked…We could win..Save the Empire..Praetor’s orders..Too fast. Moved too fast. All gone…We couldn’t fight back…Too fast, all of them…The mazes..Running, running, always, running, and when it catch up…Wouldn’t kill me. Wouldn’t spare me. Till now. Till you came. More prey.

………………………………………….

(Interior Jeffries tubes. A young crewman in red engineering uniform working at what looks like routine maintenance. Humming as he works. A soft, crackling noise from behind, quite a few feet away. The young man doesn’t notice, goes on humming, rewiring. Drops of the viscous substance along the Jeffries Tube. POV change again. The young man is seen through the eyes of the stalking predator.)

 **The young man** (frowns. Finally he has heard something. Or maybe it’s just the sixth sense that naturally develops in those who go where no man has gone before.. Looks up from his work.): Hello? Riley? That you?

(No answer at first. Then, what sounds like whispering…whispering from a torn, hoarse throat. Low enough that the young man is not sure whether or not he is actually hearing it. It is, however, closer than it initially seemed.)

 **Young man** (turns around, clutching the tool he is holding like a weapon – well, it could be a weapon, because it looks a bit like a laser welding torch): Who’s there? Anyone?

(Just past the unfortunate youth’s line of sight, something moves. We catch a glimpse of something mostly human shaped, but with something seriously wrong about it…Covered in the same viscous black substance the landing party found. It moves in a strangely silent, sinuous manner)

 **Young man** (finger hovers over a button on his armband – must be some kind of SOS signal. His instincts are yelling at him to press it, but he is young and worried about crying wolf.): If there’s anyone there, come on out where I can see you!

(A hand reaches for the kid – reaches for him straight out of the wall of the Jeffries Tube. It looks like a human hand, but…rotting. Decayed. Covered in the black liquid, dripping. Melting its way through…No, not quite. There’s no damage to the tube. It literally phased through the metal. Clasps down on his arm. The young man opens his mouth to scream, but before he can get a sound out, he is being pulled towards…through..the metallic wall. He struggles, but the steel tight grip of the hand pulls him inexorably forward… He is pulled completely through the wall, still trying to struggle and scream.)


	3. Chapter 3

(Corridor outside the sickbay. McCoy stares at Kirk and Spock.)

 **McCoy:** Run that by me again, you say this thing-

 **Kirk** : At least part of the old legends were correct, Bones. They were using the outpost for experimentation…On war prisoners, probably.

 **Spock:** And the more troublesome of their political dissidents.

(Decarte hurries in, looking harried.)

 **Decarte** : Commander, the botany la-

(Realizes he has interrupted what looks like a serious command team discussion, freezes.)

 **Spock:** Yes, Dr Decarte?

 **Decarte** (now nervous, stuttering. He really doesn’t want to go into this with the captain watching. It’s bad enough having to explain to his chief without the other two looking on.): No..Nothing important, sir. My apologies, sir, I-

 **Kirk (** uncharacteristically impatient): Spit it out, man.

 **Decarte** (steeling himself): The botanical gardens, Commander…

(Decarte explains. Kirk pales as he realizes what this could mean. Glances at Spock. The Vulcan is clearly thinking along the same lines.)

 **Kirk** (cutting off Decarte): Spock, could it have-

 **Spock:** Possibly, captain. The data obtained is insufficient to form firm conclusions.

(Kirk rushes to the nearest intercom, brushing Decarte aside. The chief botanist looks alarmed, baffled. He clearly has no idea what is going on, glances at McCoy as if asking for explanations. The doctor can only stare, horrified.)

 **Kirk** : Captain Kirk to Bridge. Sulu, place the ship on Red Alert. Intruder aboard.

…………………………………………………..

(Sometime later. Briefing Room. Kirk , Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Giotto. Every one looks grim, especially the security chief. All, except McCoy, are armed. Not taking any chances with this.)

 **Kirk :** Ensign Anderson.

 **Scotty** (looks disturbed – this is one of his people they are talking about.): He didn’t report to his station when Red Alert sounded.

 **Giotto** : I had a scan run on life signs aboard, captain.

 **McCoy (** interrupting): That blasted thing shows up on scans only when it wants to, Giotto.

 **Spock:** Only when it is not in subspace, Doctor.

 **Giotto:** I wasn’t looking for it. We’re one crewmember short. It took Ensign Anderson.

 **Scotty:** He was checking on the conduits, deck twelve, Jeffries Tube eleven. Last check in was five minutes or so before Red Alert was called. He was okay then.

 **Kirk:** It is fast. We already know that.

 **Uhura:** We’ve managed to decode some of the Romulan records, captain. They were trying to develop some sort of new warp drive…Not the usual pattern of warp drive development.. (glances at Spock)

 **Spock** (takes over): The basic idea was to create not a warp drive that could propel their ships, but allow an individual the ability to access subspace.

 **McCoy:** They tried to fit a warp drive onto-

 **Spock** : Doctor, when a ship engages warp drive, it is entering what is essentially a completely different dimension of space. A dimension where the Einstenian laws of physics no longer apply. The Romulans apparently decided that this dimension could be accessible to a different mode of transport. They were investigating a possibility of artificial quantum singularities-

 **Kirk** (cutting short the technobabble – he doesn’t have time for this): Basically, they were aiming at creating a spy – or an assassin – who could move through subspace. The perfect weapon. No known defenses could stand against it. It can go through walls, forcefields…and apparently, the vacuum of space.

 **McCoy** (clearly baffled, he doesn’t get it. Shrugs, apparently deciding he doesn’t really need to get it anyway): I’ll take your word for it.

 **Uhura:** But Captain, the ship can survive warp dimension only because of the subspace bubble the engines generate. This assassin wouldn’t have-

 **Kirk:** The Romulans didn’t have proper warp drive tech at the time, lieutenant. They weren’t clear about the potential complications. That’s why they used prisoners. No one was really expecting to succeed.

 **Uhura** : No one except the politicians, going by the memos we translated.

 **Kirk** : Some things never change. Anyhow, this attempt…backfired spectacularly. It worked. When no one expected it to.

 **Spock:** They were strangely lacking in caution. Even basic precautions were ignored in favor of expediency. This was apparently a last ditch effort, spurred on by the increasingly volatile situation at the Cheron subqudrant.

 **Uhura:** The reports read like they were just going through the motions, sir. The scientists had no hopes of it really working –actually, there weren’t many scientists left at that point. This wasn’t the first experiment that went wrong, only the last. They were just carrying out the experiments because the praetor and his council ordered them to keep going.

 **Spock:** The reports are not clear on exactly how test subject T-467C escaped, but it can be assumed that once allowed entry into hyperspace, the test subject managed to retreat further into it, learning to manipulate the space-time continuum.

 **Giotto:** Reality warper, sir?

 **Spock:** In a limited scale. We still do not know much about the hyperspace – despite centuries of using its principles to facilitate warp travel, much of it is still mysterious to us. Extrapolating from the –admittedly incomplete – data that we have, it seems that T-467C has managed to create a…subspace bubble of its own. Hadrehan, the chief researcher monitoring the experiments, believed that the test subject demonstrates substantial Esper skills while in this dimension. (He pauses a moment, knowing what he is to say next will hit close to home) From his notes, and the testimony of the Romulan survivor, it seems similar to the levels of power lieutenant commander Mitchell developed.

 **Kirk** (managing not to visibly react to the reference to Gary and his death): A proto-god, then. One that has been treated as a lab rat, no doubt tortured.

 **Spock:** Constant exposure to hyperspace, even with the shield of a personal subspace bubble, has resulted in substantial degradation of the subject’s physical – and possibly mental – state.

 **Kirk:** The Romulan said it looked like a rotting corpse. And everything it interacts with seems to decay as well. I assume that is also one of the side effects of its abilities?

 **Spock:** Interaction with hyperspace-

 **Giotto** (leaping to his feet, phaser drawn): Sir!

(The wall right behind Kirk has begun to…melt? Corrode? A black smear is spreading across it, with a sizzling sound as the metal sags, softened. Everyone darts away from it. Giotto and a couple of other security guys who have rushed in place themselves between the senior officers and whatever is coming through that wall. Spock has drawn his tricorder instead of his phaser and is standing a bit too close to the wall for the security team’s liking, trying to get a clear reading on what is going on.)

 **Spock:** Subspace disturbances, life sign readings similar to T-467C...

 **Giotto:** It’s coming through!

 **Spock:** Human life signs

(Moves as if to step closer. Kirk grabs his arm and pulls him back.)

 **Kirk:** Human? Ensign Anderson!

(The security officers usher out every one else…Or rather, tries to do so. Kirk and Spock remains. Things are happening at a rapid pace now. The wall basically sinks into itself, opening a doorway. Through it what looks like a hallway – similar to the ones down at the outpost – can be seen. Only , this one is pulsing with an eerie reddish light that seem to emanate from the walls. A figure stumbles out)

 **Giotto** : Hold your fire!

(It’s not the creature. Just ensign Anderson, the unfortunate young man we saw in the last act. He looks very much the worse for wear, covered in blood, a lot of grey in his previously jet black hair. He collapses to the floor, curling up into foetal shape as the doorway melts closed behind him. An instant later, the wall is intact…though it is beginning to show signs of serious corrosion, like the interior walls in the outpost.)

…………………………………………….

(Interior sickbay. Outside the Romulan’s room. Chapel is arranging some slides when she hears a noise from inside. She looks up. Suddenly, bloodcurdling screams from within the room. Chapel, M’Benga, and a couple of others rush for the door, but suddenly, the screams cut off.)

………………………………………..

 **Kirk:** It tossed Anderson out as a distraction. Then went for the one it really wanted.

 **McCoy:** The Romulan wouldn’t have survived anyway.

 **Kirk** : Anderson?

 **McCoy:** I had to place him in stasis. Practically the same condition as the Romulan, only, not so much time had passed, so he has a chance. But he’s going to need a very long convalescence. I’ll have to keep him in stasis till we get to a starbase with the proper facilities. His voyage is over.

 **Kirk** : His first deep space voyage. (sighs)

 **McCoy** : Another problem, Jim. How long did you say he was missing?

 **Kirk (** frowning): Less than four hours. Why-

 **McCoy:** Because every indication says that he has been in this condition for days. The thing can control time in there, Jim.

 **Kirk:** In there, it is God. Control time, space, whatever. You heard what the Romulan said. It can keep you going as long as it wants. You won’t even get to pass out unless it allows you to.

 **McCoy:** And now that thing is hunting aboard our ship.

 **Kirk** : Hunting our people.

(A pause, as he tries desperately to think his way out of this mess.)

 **Kirk** (more to himself than to McCoy): Leaving orbit won’t do any good, according to Spock. The creature’s aboard, got itself anchored, so as to speak. if the ship leaves, it comes with it.

 **McCoy:** Maybe we should give it a try, all the same. I know the hobgoblin has a really annoying track record of being right, but still, it can’t hurt to try.

 **Kirk** : We are going down again.

 **McCoy:** Excuse me?

 **Kirk** : They must have begun working on some kind of defense measures. No matter what they finally came to believe, they went into this expecting to succeed. They must have designed defenses.

 **McCoy:** Which didn’t keep them from getting wiped out en masse.

 **Kirk:** We can improve on their measures. The creature doesn’t seem quite so aggressive here. It didn’t even kill Anderson. Maybe..

 **McCoy** : Maybe a bit of its human memories remain? If it was a human to begin with?

 **Kirk:** One of the Federation…Coalition…soldiers. Naturally he would see Romulans as the enemy, would try to slaughter them as soon as possible. But if at least a portion of his mind remains…

 **McCoy:** Or maybe it’s just tired out from a century down there. Or it is playing cat and mouse with us.

……………………………………

(Engineering department. Spock and Scotty are examining something that looks like a badly melted circuit.)

 **Scotty:** This one dinnae just blow. See? Corroded. Like the stuff down there.

 **Spock:** If the entity is moving through the ship using hyperspace pathways, we can expect to see further damage of this sort.

 **Scotty(** glum): Aye, an’ worse. I’ve got damage reports coming in from every deck. This thing’s doing the rounds, all right.

 **Spock** : Assign Lt Dale to deal with the damage control.

(Scotty looks hesitant. He doesn’t want to leave his bairns. Spock notices.)

 **Spock** : You have trained your people well, Mr Scott. Trust them to remain true to that training. Right now you are needed at the outpost.

…………………………………..

(Transporter room. Kirk, Spock, Scotty, some engineering/security and science department officers present. A slight argument going on. )

 **Spock:** Mr Scott’s expertise would be indispensable to the Landing Party under the circumstances. As would mine. A junior officer cannot be left in charge in the current situation aboard.

 **Kirk** (sighs, giving in. He really doesn’t like the idea of sending the landing party down without accompanying them, but as usual, Spock’s logic is faultless.): Alright. Be careful down there, Mr Spock.

 **Spock (** raises an eyebrow): That is always my intention, Captain.

 **Scotty** (with a grin as they position themselves on the transporter platform): If it’s any comfort, captain, we’ll probably be safer down there than ye up here. The beastie’s hangin’ on tight to the ship, last we checked.

……………………………………………

(Sickbay. It is crowded, never a good sign. McCoy looks grumpier than ever. Chapel and other nurses are bustling about, trying to get everyone sorted out. Almost all the patients are sporting what looks like advanced cases of gangrene.)

 **McCoy :** Everyone who so much as brushed against that substance..Have we sorted out what it is, anyway?

 **M’Benga** : It’s organic, that’s the closest we’ve got to classifying it. Some kind of mucus type residue, maybe evolved to protect its body from direct exposure to hyperspace. It’s rotting everything it touches – both people and metal.

 **McCoy:** Nothing we can do about the metal. For the people..

 **M’Benga:** Standard treatment for gangrene isn’t working. Something in that liquid neutralizes everything we throw at it. Best case scenario, we’re stabilizing them, making sure the condition gets no worse. But beyond that…

 **McCoy:** Necrotizing fasciitis.

 **M’Benga** (realizing where his thoughts are going): That is bacterial…

 **McCoy:** With similar symptoms. If we can adapt one of the latest treatments..Maybe the Holtzmann procedure..


	4. Chapter 4

(Interior outpost. The landing party has split up to cover more area. Scotty’s team. They are in a chamber lined with dark, hexagonal reflective layers, plus one concave, mirror like screen on one wall.)

 **One of the Blueshirts** : Sir, is this…

 **Scotty:** Must be. This thing’s rigged up with Class Eleven shields. The way tech was when this place was built, they didn’t need anything past class nine. Unless they’re worried about something coming through subspace.

 **Blueshirt:** But this can’t hold it off. Not if it could phase through. (Gestures at the greenish bloodstains on the floor) And anyway, this didn’t work for them.

 **Scotty** : Aye… But if we were to rig up a Xavron shield..

………………………..

(Spock’s team, in one of the other areas of the outpost. Rows upon rows of computer machinery fixed to the walls. Spock is using his tricorder to decipher some of the data.)

 **Spock** (looking at the readings): Fascinating.

(The console next to him suddenly activates, lights glowing from scattered dials and panels. The security officer is instantly at his side, but Spock holds up a hand in the ‘leave-it-alone’ gesture.)

 **Spock:** Proximity activation.

(The screen above the console flickers on, data flashing across it.)

 **Spock** (reading from the screen, more to himself than the others): Lure subject..Instinctive predatory behavior often subjugated to what seems flashes of sapience..Electromagnetic containment mechanism. Naturally.

(Communicator beeps. Spock activates it, not taking his eyes off the screen)

 **Spock:** Yes, Mr Scott?

 **Scotty:** I think we’ve got a cage for this yon beastie, Mr Spock.

……………………………………….

(Briefing Room. Kirk, Spock, Scotty and a couple of other specialists present. What looks like a holographic blueprint on the table before them.)

 **Kirk:** Are you sure this can hold it?

 **Spock** : It is highly probable, captain. T-467C operates by moving through the subspace, emerging into normal space only to interact with its target. It is only within the subspace bubble that it remains invulnerable. In normal space, it can be taken down by conventional weaponry.

 **Scotty:** Only problem is, yon beastie’s too tricky to stay in norm space long enough to be shot at. The trick would be to trap it there. Then we can do the job the old fashioned way.

(Spock looks a little uncomfortable at all this talk of shooting)

 **Kirk:** And the structure you discovered down there can do it?

 **Scotty** (enthusiastic, as he always gets when complicated machinery is involved): With some bit of jury rigging, aye, sir. Those Romulans down there were in too much of a hurry, they messed up on a couple of Scravos level defenses, but we can just fix those up with some of the newer forcefields. Either block it off from accessing subspace, or destabilizing its subspace bubble enough to enter the same level…

 **Kirk** : Basically we can trap it in our world, but first we’ll have to get it back to the outpost.

 **Scotty:** Aye, captain.

 **Kirk** (thinking): Is there no chance of our being able to create this trap aboard?

 **Scotty (** shakes his head emphatically): No chance at all, sir. We can’t pull the sort of energy needed, nah, not even if we pour all the warp engine’s power to it. The setup down there taps right into the geothermal energy of the planet core.

 **Kirk:** We’ll have to lure it down there. Right into the trap.

 **Spock:** The Romulans used a bait subject, wounded so as to appeal to the predatory instincts of the being. One of the researchers involved in the project, the one who had the closest interaction with T-467C. The assumption was that it would associate him with what it suffered and choose to attack him over other potential targets. It worked to a degree. 467C took the bait. Only, the shields they arranged proved to be inadequate.

 **Kirk:** You aren’t suggesting-

 **Spock:** The bait subject we use will be in no danger, Captain. We can keep a transporter lock on him and beam him out at the last instant before the trap is closed.

 **Kirk:** Risky. We don’t know just how the subspace bubble will interact with the transporter effect. And there’s no safe way to test it.

 **Spock:** I believe the risk would be worth taking, considering the threat presented by the entity.

 **Kirk:** I can’t order one of my people to act as living bait.

 **Spock:** You do not have to, Captain. I volunteer.

(Kirk, who had been expecting this, shakes his head emphatically. One of the redshirts step forward.)

 **Redshirt:** With due respect, sir , if someone is to act as bait, it will be one of the security department. That’s sort of our job.

 **Spock** (raises an eyebrow): Commendable devotion to duty, lieutenant, but in this case, impractical.

(Turns to Kirk)

 **Spock:** Captain, as you suggested earlier, it is highly probable that T-467C was one of the war prisoners. A coalition soldier. While it is evident that a large part of his mental faculties and personality has been destroyed, he would identify Romulans as a higher priority target than terrans.

 **Kirk:** It took Anderson.

 **Spock** : I did not mean to imply Terrans are safe, Captain. Merely that, given the choice, 467C would target a Romulan rather than a human. Or someone who physiologically resemble a Romulan. Considering we will need to lure it away from the ship, an environment which offers abundant prey, the bait will have to particularly tempting.

(Neither Kirk, Scotty nor the security officers in the room like the idea. Everyone is trying to think of some other, more viable option.)

……………………………………………

(Sickbay. McCoy is tending to one of the patients – yet another who had the misfortune to run afoul of the black substance. The young man’s arm is scarlet and swollen, the veins standing out. Kirk, who has come to check on the casualties as well as talk to McCoy, has to struggle to keep a nauseated look off his face.)

 **McCoy:** You can’t mean that, Jim. Even Scotty admitted that blasted transporter may go on the fritz with that crazy subspace bubble around.

 **Kirk:** Even if it does, Spock will be armed. 467C is just as vulnerable to a phaser set on disintegrate as anything else, if caught outside its bubble.

 **McCoy (** raises an eyebrow in an unintentional imitation of his frenemy): Jim, you are talking about Spock. How sure are you that he will set the phaser on disintegrate?

(Kirk frowns. This is an aspect of the problem he hasn’t put much thought to, going by the look in his eyes)

 **Kirk:** He knows how dangerous the creature is.

 **McCoy:** He also knows that the ‘creature’ was some unfortunate kid who got his ship shot out from under him. (Turns from the patient for a moment to look directly at Kirk) Jim, you know what Spock is like. Remember how it was with the Horta? Or with those Xalavers from Delta Seven? That time it turned out okay, but this time? He may not get so lucky again. If he hesitates to shoot…Or tries to just stun and trap it..

 **Kirk:** He knows what he is up against. Beside, it may not come to that. If we can beam him out we can just use orbital bombardment with the ship’s phasers.

 **McCoy** : At least send a security team with him!

 **Kirk:** The creature’s been lured into that trap once already, Bones. If we’re lucky, something that happened a century ago may have skipped its mind. We daren’t let it suspect anything, all the same. A Romulan accompanied by Terran guards wouldn’t seem very…plausible.

(McCoy scoffs. He’s annoyed, worried, scared for the man he wouldn’t admit to actually liking **.)**

 **Kirk** (shrug): He’ll be okay, Bones.

................................................

(Outside sickbay. Corridor. Kirk is hurrying down the corridor, probably headed to engineering or the briefing room where the finishing touches are being added to the plan. His face bears a grim, determined expression. Redshirt security officers are patrolling the corridors, in pairs. Kirk nods to a team that passes him. A few more steps down the corridor…)

 **Kirk** (slows, frowning slightly. His instinct warns him that danger is near. Draws his phaser.): What…

(The security team he passed turns back, maybe hearing him, maybe sensing the same thing he did.)

 **Redshirt** (looks down at the floor, notices something, horrified): Sir!

(Kirk has already seen what the redshirt has – beneath their feet, glistening black patches of the viscous liquid the creature secretes is spreading. The very deck is turning to something else as they watch .)

 **Kirk:** Run!

(No use firing phasers. Whether or not the creature itself is vulnerable, this black puddle isn’t. they know what is happening – another doorway, like the one Anderson fell out of, is opening at their feet. This time not to toss anyone out, but to pull them in.)

 **The redshirt nearest to the intercom** (into the intercom): Intruder alert! Code Gold!

(Code Gold is the Captain-in-Danger sign. Probably gets used a lot more than usual with Jim Kirk.)

 **A blueshirt further down the corridor** (just now noticing what he is standing on): What the-

(Everyone tries to run – even the shocked blueshirt, though in his case, only after one of the fleeing redshirts grabbed and pulled him along a couple of steps. But it isn’t working. Their feet goes sliding on the muck…worse, sinking into it.)

 **Redshirt:** It’s sucking us in!

(Yeah- like some sort of quagmire, it is pulling them in. Kirk and one of the redshirts fire their phasers at the deck, but that is to little use, as they already knew. )

 **Blueshirt** : Help! Someone help!

(From both sides of the corridor, people come running- security teams and others who heard the commotion.)

 **McCoy** (runs forward, apparently about to leap into the quagmire after his friend. One of the redshirts on his side grab onto him): Jim!

 **Kirk:** Stay away! Everyone, back off!

(The trapped people know they are doomed. The blueshirt is struggling and close to panic, but Kirk and the redshirts are more or less calm..At least, as calm as you can be when you’re getting sucked into a hell dimension by something that looks like a rotting corpse)

 **McCoy** (to the security officers who have just arrived): What the hell are you waiting for, an engraved invitation? Do something! Get them out of there!

(But there’s no time to do anything. The trapped crewmembers sink into the black morass before the eyes of their horrified comrades.)

 **Kirk** : Bones! Tell Spock-

(He doesn’t get to complete whatever it was he was going to say, cut off as he sinks beneath the surface, gagging on the black goo.)

………………………………………………..

(Later, Briefing room. The group gathered there looks grim. Spock, at the head of the table, is outwardly as unflappable as ever, but there is a hint of hidden tension about his eyes. McCoy looks shellshocked, Uhura horrified, Scotty furious. Security chief Giotto looks equal parts ashamed and angry – after all, it was his job to keep the captain, especially a danger magnet captain like this one, safe, and he has failed spectacularly.)

 **Spock:** In addition to the captain, we have lost three crewmen – lieutenants Rawlins and Perkins, Ensign Warren.

**McCoy** (shellshocked or not, the doctor is determined to hold onto some hope.): We don’t know they’re dead. It let Anderson get away…

 **Spock** : The entity allowed Mr Andersen to escape as a distraction so as to reach its actual target. It will have no such incentives to release the captain and the other victims.

 **McCoy** : Dammit Spock, you are-

(Catches himself. The pair has come a long way from the Galileo Seven days, and McCoy knows full well that Spock is even more worried about Jim than any of the more expressive humans in the room.)

 **McCoy** (calmer, less accusatory): So what are we going to do? If we go ahead with the plan..lure the thing down there and blast it to atoms… What will happen to Jim and the others there? That subspace bubble or whatever that thing is..Will it just vanish or something?

(This is evidently the question on everyone’s minds. All, except Scotty, look expectantly at Spock. Scotty doesn’t. He and Spock had been discussing the possibilities, and he knows them too well.)

 **Spock:** There is no possibility of making exact predictions as we are dealing with spatial and temporal dimensions no one has ever had the opportunity to examine. I would say there are two possibilities, both equally likely. One, the subspace bubble would implode, collapsing in on itself without the entity’s mental emanations to support it.

 **McCoy:** And our people…

 **Spock** (continuing calmly): In this case, any normal being trapped within the subspace bubble at the time of implosion would be killed instantly. (He pauses for a moment, allowing the implications to sink in) The second, and more troubling possibility is that the bubble – the pocket dimension, so to speak – would continue to exist till entropy caused it to dissipate, an event that could take place over one week or one millennia, for all we know.

(A moment of stunned silence as everyone realizes what this means for the victims. Trapped in the dissolving limbo, for what could seem millennia..or even infinity..)

 **Uhura:** Do you think they are alive? If that thing decided to…

(trails off, not wanting to finish that sentence with the image that has just come to her mind)

 **Spock** (still completely emotionless): The victims were all alive when last seen. Going by the entity’s modus operandi as described in the Romulan records as well as the witness testimony of the survivor, would suggest that it keeps its victims alive for as long as it can.

 **Scotty:** Aye, keep em to play, like a kitty with a wee mouse…

(Shudders at the image his own description conjured up)

 **Giotto:** It won’t let go of them till it is bored…Till it wants new victims to play with, so to speak.

 **Spock:** Yes.

 **Sulu:** And the time dilation, sir? Anderson was just gone for a few hours and came back with days past, subjective time.

 **Spock:** The time dilation, unfortunately, remains the unknown variable here. We have no accurate way of judging the manner time passes within the subspace. What Mr Anderson experienced was of much shorter in duration than the Romulan survivor’s experience. For the moment, we will have to assume that the captured crew members are alive.

 **Giotto** : Till it tosses their bodies out…

(McCoy winces. From Giotto’s own sudden wince, it looks like someone – probably Sulu or Uhura – kicked him under the table)

 **Spock:** Yes. Till then, we will act on the assumption that they are alive.

 **McCoy** (impassioned outburst): We’ve got to get them out!

 **Scotty:** Aye, Doc, but the question is, how?

(The chief engineer looks at Spock. Both of them know that they are the only ones among the group who have even a slight chance of working out a solution to the entire mess.)

 **Spock** (he has probably been working on this with part of his mind even as he was holding the briefing): Mr Scott, the Romulans at the outpost initially attempted to confine the entity within its own subspace bubble, by cutting off its..territory, so to speak, from the rest of the subspace.

 **Scotty** (realizing what Spock is planning, and part excited, part terrified, by the possibility): Aye, trap the beastie in its own cave…But they miscalculated pretty badly. Something like that won’t hold for more than a couple of hours.

 **Spock:** Then a couple of hours would have to be enough – if we cannot improve sufficiently on the initial containment field.

 **Giotto:** If we can take a search party right into its cave…

 **Spock:** The rescue team must be fitted with subcutaneous transponders.

 **Scotty:** I cannae be sure it’ll work down there, Mr Spock. Subcutaneous ones arerisky under the best circumstances. With all the stray radiation down there…No, I cannae guarantee it’ll… (shakes his head glumly.)

 **Spock:** The team will be using communicators to keep in touch with each other and with the ship. If a team member needs emergency beamout, tap the relevant code out over the comm. channels. The transponders are only to be activated in case a member of the search team has not re emerged from the subspace bubble by the time we begin orbital bombardment.

 **Giotto** (reluctantly – he knows there is little chance of this request being granted): Commander, with the captain captured, wouldn’t it be more prudent for you to remain aboard? I can lead the rescue teams…

 **Spock** : It would certainly be more prudent, Chief Giotto. However, considering the success of our plan hinges on the being mistaking the bait for Romulan, we have little choice in the matter. I am the only one aboard who resembles them. Mr Scott will return aboard before the containment field is activated and will be in command.

(Scotty looks less than pleased at the passive role assigned to him, but knows that it is where he can be of maximum use. He nods.)

 **Scotty:** Aye, sir.

 **Spock** : How long do you believe you would need to realign the containment chamber to this purpose?

 **Scotty** (calculating mentally): We’ll need a Scavros shield…And reconfigure the..

 **McCoy** (interrupting): Keep in mind that it’s already been half an hour after that thing took them. if what happened to poor Anderson is anything to go by…

(Scotty nods. Everyone looks grim, but says nothing. There really is nothing to say – this is the best chance they’ve got, and they all know it.)

……………………………………………………….

(What looks like the interior of the creature’s pocket dimension. The captured Enterprise people – Kirk, two redshirts and the blueshirt – seem to be just waking up, sitting up groggily. Focus on Kirk’s face. At first he’s dazed, not sure what just happened or where he is, then realization hits with all the subtlety of a warping shuttle.)

 **Kirk** (not really an exclamation, too shocked to sound shocked): Oh God.

 **Redshirt 1(** groggy, alarmed): Sir?

 **Blueshirt:** It got us, didn’t it?

(Kirk pulling himself together, trying – and near perfectly managing – to look calm and in control, in other words, like he has the slightest clue what to do to get them out of here alive. This is, after all, just another command situation, in a way.)

 **Kirk:** Well, it certainly looks that way, ensign..(very slight pause as he remembers the blueshirt’s name) Warren

(Ensign Warren looks delighted that the captain actually knows his name. for a moment the delight overrides the guy’s terror.)

 **Redshirt 2** (pulls out her phaser, checks its power settings): The phasers are still active, at any rate.

(By now everyone is on their feet, looking around, scanning the area for danger…or maybe just trying to make sense of the surroundings – they are in what looks like a long corridor. The walls look like they had originally been white, but now pulse with a blood red glow. It’s almost like being inside a beating heart.)

 **Kirk** : Phasers on maximum power, everyone.

 **Redshirt 1** : Sir, it isn’t…Where did it…

 **Kirk:** It likes to hunt, lieutenant Perkins.

 **Redshirt 2** : It’s practically god in here. No need to get it over with fast if it doesn’t want to.

 **Warren** (muttered, not meant to be audible): Very comforting, Rawlins.

(Kirk, looking around, is trying to come up with a plan.)

 **Kirk:** Keep moving.

 **Warren** : Sir, won’t it know where we-

(Rawlins elbows him in the ribs. They’ve got to keep moving if they are to stand a chance. Kirk looks back, not without sympathy, at the ensign)

 **Kirk:** There are doorways to the outer world. Like the one Mr Anderson emerged from.

(He apparently believes it would be counter productive to mention that Anderson certainly didn’t find his own way out. The redshirts know, but they keep silent too – can’t have the ensign panicking.)

 **Perkins:** We’ll come across one sooner or later. This beastie hasn’t ever had Starship people to mess with.

 **Kirk:** Besides, we just need to survive long enough. Commander Spock will even now be putting the finishing touches to a rescue plan, if I know anything about him. The point is to buy time.

(Warren, though still looking like he’s going to be sick, manages to nod and straighten up.)

……………………….


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I made a mistake in the last chapter. Uploaded my earlier draft instead of the original, meaning my plot got derailed. That, and some mess in Real Life, meant I couldn't complete it. So now I had to go back and edit the 4th chapter. Sincere apologies to those who already read it, just check out the second half of it again.

(Outpost. The jury rigged containment chamber. Spock, Scotty, McCoy, Giotto and a security team standing together, discussing. In the background, some engineering and science techs put finishing touches to the machinery. Spock is in a Romulan commander’s uniform. )

 **Scotty:** I’ve set this to activate the moment yon beastie turns up. It’ll hold it and the subspace bubble…Its pocket dimension…and stop it from using the subspace to travel.

 **McCoy (** trying to follow the conversation): How does that even…No, wait, never mind. If you say it works, it works. So you’re going to lure it down here…

 **Giotto** : Mr Spock, I suggest that once the entity is trapped, you beam back to the ship. Immediately. My team will handle the search for the captives. (Hurries on before Spock – or any of the others – can interrupt) No offense meant, sir, but you will be its top target once it gets here. It would be too risky for you to join the search party.

(Spock considers this argument a moment. It makes sense, and he doesn’t have Kirk’s need to be in the center of the fight…But Kirk is trapped here, and he really doesn’t like the idea of returning to safety without the captain. Plus, he is a scientist, and the opportunity to examine a stable subspace pocket dimension doesn’t come about often, even for starship people.)

 **Spock:** We have instituted measures to disorient the entity, Mr Giotto. I believe that would be sufficient precaution.

 **McCoy:** By the way, just how sure are you that we got the disorienting measures right? I mean, you got it from the Romulan files and the Romulans got wiped out by this thing…

 **Spock** (calm, confident): The Romulans miscalculated. Even then, it bought them time. Not as much as they needed, but more than sufficient for our rescue operation.

 **McCoy:** Let’s just hope you’re right, hobgoblin.

 **Spock** : ‘Hope’ is-

 **McCoy:** Illogical, and I don’t care.

……………………………..

(Interior subspace bubble. The captives are moving cautiously through the endless corridors. Perkins in the lead, then Warren and Kirk, Rawlins bringing up the rear. The blood red, pulsing light gives their faces an eerie cast. Warren is looking very nervous – he is armed, as it is required of all crew members during Intruder alert situations, but the way he holds it shows that if it came to using it, he’s in big trouble.)

 **Warren** (struggling to keep a quaver out of his voice, nearly succeeding): Um, is it..Is it possible it doesn’t know we’re here?

 **Rawlins** (looking at the ensign as if she thinks he’s lost his mind): Who d’you think pulled us in to begin with?

 **Warren** (defensive): We didn’t see it, did we? Maybe this was a side effect or something…

 **Kirk** (he needs to end this argument now): In any case, the entity knows we are here – it’s aware of everything happening in its dimension.

(The corridor they are proceeding down looks…not right. There are no potholes or crumbling bits, but the very tilt and lay of it seems subtly off. Warren is not the only one looking a bit nauseous. They are about to round a corner.)

 **Perkins** (tone makes clear that the word would get bleeped out if translated): Darmoc!

(The entity is in the hallway – looking straight at them. There’s a thick puddle of the black substance at its feet. The first good look any of the team is getting of it, and everyone wishes it had remained in the shadows. It looks like an oozing, rotting corpse… Something that brings an instinctive revulsion, even in the trained Starfleet officers who have dealt with aliens who looked even more bizarre than this. Warren moans.)

 **Kirk:** Fire.

(The group opens fire – only to find that the creature is no longer there. It’s moving with a terrifying sinuous speed, blurring so that they can barely see…)

 **Rawlins:** Watch out!

(The phaser beams all miss their mark – the creature is moving too fast. It’s centimeters away from Kirk –and Perkins who has moved to throw himself between the captain and the creature- when…something changes. Very abruptly. The pulsation sort of stutters for a moment, darkens, flickers…blinks out, leaving them in total darkness. A high pitched scream.)

 **Kirk:** Rawlins, are you okay?

 **Rawlins :** That wasn’t me. Warren?

(No reply for a moment.)

 **Warren** (very terrified and very embarrassed): Sorry…Startled..

 **Perkins:** Can anyone hear that thing?

(The glow returns, pulsing blood red as before. The corridor is empty, except for the Starfleet team. It doesn’t look quite so tilted and weird now. Everyone exchanges puzzled glances.)

 **Rawlins:** Is it playing cat and mouse?

 **Kirk** (a grim smile): I believe…it got rather distracted.

………………………………

(Interior outpost, interior subspace bubble. Spock and the security team are in. It looks like the center of the maze. Corridors leading in all directions. The security team holds phasers ready. Spock is armed too, but more interested in his tricorder and whatever it is showing.)

 **Spock** (into the communicator): Maintain transporter lock on us.

 **Kyle:** Yes sir. (slight pause) But sir, there’s a lot of interference, subspace distortions. I’m trying to filter it through, but even an emergency beamout may take a couple of minutes if it doesn’t get better.

 **Spock:** Then ensure that it does get better, lieutenant.

(Spock takes a swift, comprehensive glance along the corridor. He sees it pulsing a shade of green. The color of Vulcan blood.)

 **Giotto:** Watch out!

(The entity emerges from the shadows – not melting out of any walls this time- making an unerring beeline for the supposed Romulan right before it.)

 **Spock:** Now.

(Every one presses a button on their wrist bands. The creature stops suddenly, freezing. Scene changes to from the creature’s POV. The Starfleet officers are seen as swirling pillars of energy, silver bright. A very high pitched noise emerges from the wristbands – a noise that they apparently can’t hear, for they show no reaction. The creature stumbles back – furious, confused, in pain. It tries to melt into the wall, but apparently..can’t.)

 **Giotto** (triumphant): Scotty, you did it again!

(The creature decides to flee the oldfashioned way. It is still incredibly fast, though. Blurs into motion, dashes down the corridor. Spock and Giotto exchange glances.)

 **Spock:** Proceed.

(The redshirts split into two- member teams, one pair goes to Spock’s side. Each team takes a different corridor. Each team has tricorders – smaller ones than usual- in hand, scanning for lifesigns.)

 **Spock:** Phasers at heavy stun. The entity must not be killed before we have located the captives. (very sight pause) Or confirmed their demise.

………………………….

(Kirk and team, racing down the corridor. Occasionally one or the other steps on the patches of the slimy dark substance and goes skidding, but no one falls.)

 **Rawlins** : Sir!

(The entity, ahead of them..Or may be just a shadow. It’s too quickly gone to tell for sure.)

………………………….

(The search teams making their way down the twisting corridors.)

 **Giotto** (dividing his attention between the tricorder and the surroundings): The readings are all screwed up. We’ll have to walk right into them before we get anything clear.

 **Redshirt:** Sir, will it pick up the creature, if-

 **Giotto:** Let’s hope it will.

…………………

(Spock’s team. The Vulcan is making some adjustments to his tricorder.)

 **Spock:** I believe I have located them.

…………………………….

(Kirk and party are frozen in place, darting glances to every side, no way to be sure in which direction the creature would emerge. The lighting is dimming progressively, making it difficult to tell whether the shadows are just shadows.)

 **Perkins:** Sir, do you think they are…Will they.. I mean, the plan was for them to seal it in…

(Warren’s eyes widen. The ensign hasn’t been told the details, but from the rumors spreading, he has some idea what the plan involved)

 **Warren:** They won’t seal it in with us, will they?

 **Kirk:** Ensign-

 **Rawlins:** There!

(The creature. Not melting out of the walls this time, but moving rapidly down the corridor. Towards them. The shadows make it difficult to tell exactly where it is, but they can see it isn’t far. Everyone opens fire. The weird tilt of the hallway and the even weirder light make it hard to aim. To make things worse, even cut off from subspace the creature has some kind of phaser resistance, so even the beams that do hit don’t do as much damage as they should.)

 **Warren** (panicking): This isn’t working!

(The security officers glare at him, but he has a point. At this rate the thing will be upon them before the phaser hits do any good.)

 **Kirk:** Retreat. Keep firing.

(The group rapidly retreats down the corridor, walking backwards, firing constantly – and mostly missing, much to Kirk’s and the Redshirts’ chagrin. Warren ends up stepping onto one of the black substance puddles again – this time he isn’t lucky. His feet go sliding out from under him.)

 **Perkins:** Warren!

(The creature is instantly darting forward, the predator sensing weakness. To his credit, Warren has wits enough to keep firing from his prone position, panicked or not. Rawlins darts forward, trying to get between the creature and the ensign, but she won’t be in time and they know it.)

 **Kirk** (shouting): United Earth! Soldiers of the Alliance! Death to the Romulans!

(Perkins darts a glance at him as if wondering he lost his mind, but the effect on the creature is immediate. It halts, confused. Rawlins pulls Warren to his feet hastily.)

 **Rawlins** (getting the idea): Victory to the Alliance!

(The creature is confused, but may not remain so for long. It is looking at the captive humans…maybe there is a flicker of recognition, a memory of fighting beside comrades who looked like them.)

 **Kirk** (clearly wondering whether he can actually reason with the creature standing before them, whether there is enough sanity left in that broken form): We are of the Alliance. We are here to help you.

(The creature makes a strange sound. Sort of cross between a wail and a groan. Is it trying to communicate? )

 **Perkins:** Captain…

(The creature moves – not sure whether it meant to attack. Warren opens fire instinctively. Only one of the beams hit the creature, just causing it to stumble. The fragile rapport is broken. It darts forward – Kirk is the nearest target.)

 **Kirk:** We are-

(That’s as far as he gets before the creature reaches him, its clawed hand slashing down. Kirk tries to dodge the blow intended to slash his throat open, and partially succeeds. The claw only strikes his face, slashing a bloody gash on his cheek – a gash that already begins to blacken with whatever venom the creature exudes.)

 **Rawlins** (shooting at the creature): Here, Ugly!

(But the creature won’t be distracted. It has fixed on Kirk as its prey. The others daren’t use the phasers at a higher setting – Kirk is too close and would be caught in the blast.)

 **Redshirt** (offscreen): There!

(Spock and the pair of security officers with him rush in. They activate the infrasonic sound emitters on their wristbands. The creature falters in its attack)

 **Kirk** (darting beyond easy reach of the creature): You do have a knack for arriving at the nick of time, Spock.

(Spock gives him a look that says ‘With you to watch out for, I’ve had plenty of practice.’)

……………………………

(Transporter room, aboard enterprise. Scotty and Kyle at the console, both looking more than a bit uneasy. Working feverishly at the controls.)

 **Kyle:** I can’t get a lock on them!

 **Scotty:** The others?

 **Kyle:** I can get all the other teams, but those near the creature are caught in its…aura.

(Scotty checks the readings on Kyle’s console. What he sees is really not good.)

 **Scotty:** Beam up every one ye can get, laddie. Meanwhile, let me see…(makes some adjustments on the console, frowning.)

……………………………..

(Subspace bubble, same situation as before. The creature seemingly incapacitated, or thoroughly disoriented, standing against the wall. The redshirts have their weapons trained on it. Spock is scanning the area and the creature with the tricorder. Warren has a medical kit in hand – brought by the rescue team- and is trying to deal with Kirk’s injury. The cut looks pretty nasty.)

 **Spock:** Fascinating.

 **Kirk** (trying not to wince as Warren dabs some antiseptic stuff on the cut): What?

 **Spock** (intent upon the tricorder and the creature): The so-called subspace bubble has a noticeable psychic component. The appearance of the pocket dimension is influenced by the entity’s neural emanations, and, to a lesser degree, that of other humanoids present within.

 **Kirk:** The place looks like what it wants. (Look that says, ‘So what’s new, we already knew that.’)

 **Spock:** Not merely the entity. It is possible that we may be able to force the region into a different appearance-

(A tremor goes through the area, almost like an earthquake. Everyone struggle to keep their balance)

 **Kirk:** Scotty, what’s going on up there?

 **Scotty** (via communicator): Trying to get a fix on ye, Captain…(voice changes. Note of alarm) Sir, get away from there! The subspace waves are beginning to peak again

(No one needs to be told what it means. The trap is beginning to break. The walls ripple once, and the pulsating light glows brighter.)

………………………….

(Transporter room)

 **Kyle:** Sir, if it gets back into subspace…

 **Scotty** (through gritted teeth): I know, laddie. (intercom) Chekov, ready for Orbital bombardment. (to Kyle) Lock onto whoever ye can.

(Kyle knows there’s no time to argue. If the creature gets back into free movement via subspace, the ship would be its first target. Hurriedly activates the console)

………………………………………….

(Subspace bubble…Now transitioning back to normal subspace. Transporter effect begins to take hold, but it’s not working the way it should. Their figures flicker, but doesn’t vanish completely.)

 **Kirk :** Hurry up, Scotty!

(Unfortunately, while not strong enough to pick up the crewmembers, the transporter effect is strong enough to mess with the sound emitters. The creature has almost completely recovered…and now it darts forward, heading for Spock. Kirk and one of the redshirts try to get in the way, but the half-on, half-off transporter beam means no one can actually move much.)

 **Kirk:** Spock!

(The creature doesn’t go for the kill directly – as the Romulan commander said, it likes to…play with the prey a bit. At least, when the prey resembles its tormenters. It draws a claw down Spock’s arm, opening a gash that turns black and necrotic instantly. A faster reaction than Kirk’s wound – it is used to attacking Romulan physiology.)

 **Kirk** (straining against the useless transporter beam’s hold, having to struggle to get the words out): He’s of the Alliance! Vulcan! He’s Vulcan, not Romulan!

(Not working. If the creature heard him, it doesn’t believe. Or care. Around them, the subspace bubble is changing. For an instant it looks like the bubble is dissipating, because it’s beginning to resemble the Romulan outpost, but then it’s clear that this is an illusion. The outpost is the way the creature would have seen it – all gleaming white and steel and cold.)

 **Warren:** it’s killing him!

………………………………………

(Enterprise. Scotty and a couple of others rapidly rewiring the console.)

 **Scotty:** If that doesn’t do it, nothing will.

 **Sulu’s voice** (via intercom): Ready to commence bombardment.

 **Scotty (** grim, knowing he has done everything he can): Wait for my word, Sulu. Stand ready.

……………………………………………..

(Subspace bubble. Close on Kirk’s face. The captain seems to be concentrating really hard on something…as if trying to force something to change by will alone. Which might actually be possible here. A ripple goes through the walls…which abruptly merge and change, for a moment, into what looks like the bridge of a starship. In a second, it’s gone again, but for that instant it was crystal clear)

 **Kirk** (pale and drained): Focus on it, every one! Alliance age battle ships! (Realizes that the rest of the crew are not history buffs like him, and may have no clue what such a ship looks like, forget its bridge layout.) What you saw just now. Visualize it again. Don’t try to move, just picture it.

(The others’ eyes narrow, as they too try to join the effort. No one seems clear on what the captain is aiming for, but they obey instantly. The walls ripple, merge, again…and this time holds the new shape. They and the creature are standing aboard the bridge of a battleship. One of the primitive, nuclear weapon wielding relics that battled the Romulans during a different, harsher time. One of the ships the broken creature before them had served on, as a man, as a hero.)

 **Kirk:** The Alliance. We’re taking you home, soldier.

(The creature hesitates. Its attempts at mauling Spock ceases, it steps away from him, drifting to the command chair of the ship. It looks confused, but no longer hostile. The way it moves makes it clear that some memory of this world remains. It wanders along the ‘bridge.’ Perhaps searching for old comrades, now long dead and gone. The Enterprise team, still half-paralyzed in the transporter beam’s effect, watch. Equal parts awestruck and horrified.)

………………..

(Transporter room. Scotty and Kyle at the controls. This is the last chance.)

 **Scotty** (into the intercom): Sulu, commence bombardment in thirty seconds. (to Kyle) Kyle, energize.

(They activate the console once more. This time, things are going more smoothly.)

 **Kyle:** We got them!

…………………….

(Subspace bubble. The Enterprise team vanish as finally the transporter beam takes hold completely. The creature doesn’t notice, moving slowly, dazedly, through the ‘bridge.’ Maybe it thinks it…he…is safe once more, back aboard. Maybe it is far too gone to think that coherently, but some latent memory tells it that it belonged here, once. It again begins to make that wailing sound, as if trying to speak, to call out.)

……………………….

(Enterprise bridge.)

 **Chekov** (at weapons console): Commencing bombardment.

(Phaser beams shoot from the gigantic ship, converging unerringly on the outpost. )

………………………………

(Sickbay. It’s some time later. The cure McCoy and M’Benga had been working on apparently came through, because the place is no longer crowded. )

 **McCoy** (scowling, grumbling – things are back to normal): Well, I’ve got the pair of you patched up. Again. Try to stay out of my sickbay for the next week or so, if you don’t mind.

 **Spock** (the gashes the creature had torn open in his arm and chest have closed. There’s still a trace of a scar, but the way it is fading, it’ll be gone soon): That is most certainly our intention, doctor.

(Kirk isn’t paying any attention to the sniping, uncharacteristically. McCoy notices the morose expression on his face, decides Spock isn’t the only one due for some snipe-fest therapy.)

 **McCoy:** And that scar will fade in a day or two, Jimmy boy. If I get that pretty face spoiled, every female from stem to stern’ll be out to lynch me.

 **Kirk** (not bothering to respond to the comment): He was a captain, before they got to him. The… entity down there. It was in the way he headed directly for the command chair on that ‘bridge’ we called up.

 **McCoy** (dropping the banter tone): Even if we had some way to safely restrain it..him, there was nothing we could’ve done, Jim. The damage happened too long ago, went too deep.

 **Spock:** I have to agree with the doctor. The physical and mental degradation made rescue and recovery impossible. The only way we could have helped him was by doing what we did. Consider it euthanasia.

 **McCoy:** Heck, he got his revenge on them, anyhow. Took down an entire Romulan top secret outpost single handedly. (pauses) And if some bit of awareness, memory, remained, well, the last thing he saw was his ship. His bridge. Something he would never have expected to see again, after they got him. You gave him that much.

 **Kirk:** It isn’t much.

McCoy: It’ll have to be enough.


End file.
